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GeoVax developing two Ebola vaccines

GeoVax Labs Inc., an Atlanta company developing an HIV vaccine, has turned its attention to Ebola.

The company announced a program to develop vaccines to prevent Ebola infection, and it plans to make them available by 2016.

GeoVax (OTC QB: GOVX) will collaborate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and its experts and Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facilities for testing vaccine responses against lethal hemorrhagic viruses. It noted Ebola naturally infects animals including bats, creating a reservoir of Ebola that, like rabies, cannot be eradicated completely.

GeoVax is developing two Ebola vaccines -- GOVX-E301 and GOVX-E302. Both are recombinant MVA (modified vaccinia Ankara) vaccines designed to produce non-infectious virus-like particles (VLPs) displaying the Ebola virus glycoprotein. GOVX-E301 is being developed as a single-dose vaccine for epidemic response against the ZEBOV strain of Ebola, the virus responsible for the current outbreak. GOVX-E302 is being developed for routine immunization and is designed to protect against all three versions of Ebola known to be lethal in humans. GOVX-E302 is anticipated to be used in a two-dose regimen.

“We feel an urgency in launching this new program to develop a safe and effective Ebola vaccine,” said Dr. Robert McNally, GeoVax president and CEO, in a statement. “For the current epidemic, containment efforts have proven difficult to institute, accentuating the world’s lack of preparation for a runaway Ebola epidemic and the need for a vaccine. With the knowledge gained from our experience in developing HIV vaccines, we believe our MVA-vectored Ebola vaccines have the unique attributes required for success and will offer superior results over other Ebola vaccines in development.”